Isaiah 7:7-9

Isaiah 7 deals with the impending siege of Jerusalem by an alliance of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and Syria (not Assyria aka Babylon). Isaiah is sent to Ahaz (the son of Jotham the son of Uzziah the king in reign in the last chapter) to tell him that the Lord has it all under control and that the alliance will not succeed because they have plotted evilly. Ahaz seems not to like the comforting prophecy for some reason, turning down an offer of a sign from God to encourage faith in Him. This is what Isaiah says to ‘encourage’ the king:

‘Thus says the Lord GOD

“It shall not stand,
Nor shall it come to pass.
For the head of Syria is Damascus,
And the head of Damascus is Rezin [the king].
Within sixty-five years Ephraim [northern kingdom] will be broken,
So that it will not be a people.
The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
And the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son.
If you will not believe,
Surely you shall not be established.”’ (Isaiah 7:7-9)

This seems pretty convincing as we read the Bible in the light of God doing so many amazing and powerful things. When He says ‘nor shall it come to pass’ we know that it indeed will definitely not come to pass. And so we read with great wonder ‘If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.’ We think, ‘how can the king not believe this? God has said it in no uncertain terms.’ We forget that Ahaz hears this not in the context of the Bible but in the context of the moment. His acceptance or rejection of the statement rests on his own state of mind at that precise moment, or his state of heart. For if he is thinking in Godly terms, his ‘context’ will be Gods power and truth, and he will accept and believe. However, if his thinking is man-centred and humanistic, then the statement seems silly in the light of various factors at the time (ie. The looming massive army coming at them).

In this way, the statement applies equally to us. For although we have the Bible and all these stories of God’s immense power and many records of its display, it depends on if we are thinking in God’s terms or our own as to whether we accept His sovereignty or not. For even though we all know that God is in control, we need to be in the Spirit to know His control.

And so we come to the statement. ‘If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.’ What is the consequence of us not believing (as Christians)? We will not be established. Believing means more than just head knowledge. It means trusting, resting on the fact. If we do not completely trust what God says, if we do not believe everything that God tells us, then we will never be established. We will never find a resting solid ground for our faith. We will be ‘tossed about by every wind of doctrine’. In Bible study we have been talking about being established in the Gospel. This is the same type of thing. We need to believe, rest on God’s Word and fully trust Him to be established. To fully believe Him we need to be thinking in God’s terms.